Basket for handling segregated units and the like



R. F. EWALD Nov. 1, 1955 BASKET FOR HANDLING SEGREGATED UNITS AND THE LIKE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 24, 1954 4 /f/ 15 12245 34 16T ZZZ Nov. 1, 1955 R. F. EWALD 2,722,353

BASKET FOR HANDLING SEGREGATED UNITS AND THE LIKE Filed June 24, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 a5 Ili m i 40 44 4a m 24 I VII/I I United States Patent Ofiice 2,722,353 Patented Nov. 1, 1955 BASKET FOR HANDLING SEGREGATED UNITS AND THE LIKE Robert F. Ewald, Merrick, N. Y.

Application June 24, 1954, Serial No. 439,008

8 Claims. (Cl. 224-45) The present invention relates to devices for handling segregated units, such as building elements, e. g., bricks and the like, and, more particularly, to such devices by which a stack of a few such units may be manually transported on a job from one location to another.

A general object of the present invention is the provision of such a device in the form of an open-bottom basket having load-supporting ledge means in the area of the open bottom on which such units may be readily rested and stacked, thus permitting ready manual transportation of a small load from a supply pile to the locale of use, and at the latter quick and easy unloading by retraction of the ledge means to allow the load to fall out when an operating means is digitally manipulated.

A more specific object of the present invention is to provide such a basket with biased bell-crank means which normally locate the load-supporting ledge means in the area of the open bottom to be bridged by and supportable of the load, the bell-crank means being operable by a digital operator for simultaneous retraction of the ledge means out to unloading positions.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a structural embodiment of the device which is readily constructed and permits efficient use and operation thereof.

Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements, and arrangement of parts, which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a perspective view to reduced scale, with parts broken away, of an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a lateral section, taken substantially on line 2-2 of Fig. 3, with parts broken away, of the device shown in Fig. 1, illustrating in dot-dash lines a stack of bricks loaded therein;

Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken substantially on line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a transverse section taken substantially on line 4-4 of Fig. 3, with parts broken away;

Fig. 5 is a transverse section taken substantially on line 5-5 of Fig. 3, with parts broken away;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view similar to Fig. 5 showing the relative positions of the ledge means and their operative mechanisms when swung outward to unloading positions by digital operation;

Fig. 7 is a view similar to Fig. 4, with parts broken away and in section, of a modified form of the basket of the present invention; and

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary side elevational view, with parts broken away and in section, of the modified basket structure shown in Fig. 7.

Referring to the drawings, in which like numerals identify similar parts throughout, it will be seen that the embodiment of the basket of the present invention which is illustrated by way of example therein is in the form of a container 10 which is adapted to be loaded with a stack of a few building units, such as about a dozen bricks, for manual transportation. In accordance with the current practice, bricks are manually supplied by a helper to a bricklayer from a stockpile and the manual transfer thereof is no major problem when lower tiers of a building wall are being laid. However, as the wall is built up, the manual transfer of the bricks from the stockpile to the bricklayer becomes increasingly onerous and wasteful of time and man-power. The present invention efliciently solves this and other problems of manual transfer of a few building units from one place to another on a job by making it possible simply to load about a dozen of the units, e. g., bricks, in a gasket which can be easily transported manually by a workman, e. g., the bricklayers helper, from a stockpile to the location of use, e. g., to the bricklayer, and there readily unloaded from the basket by a simple, single manual operation comprising removal from beneath the stack of units or bricks in the basket of the bottom supporting means to permit them to fall down through and to or upon a supporting surface, such as one which may be readily accessible to the bricklayer.

The illustrated embodiment of the basket 10 preferably comprises an open-bottom rectangular container defined by side wall means, including front and back wall structures 11 and 12, and two opposed end wall structures 13 and 14. The basket 10 has an open bottom 15 in the area of which are movably mounted transversely-spaced, lateral supporting means in the form of load-supporting ledge means disposed below and adjacent to the vertical planes of the front and back side wall structures 11 and 12. Such movable ledge means are preferably in the form of a pair of longitudinally-extending strips 16, 16 which normally are disposed in the area of the open bottom 15 and may be swung outward laterally from that area to be retracted from beneath a load bridged across and supported thereon. The opposed inside edges of the ledge strips 16, 16 preferably are rounded, as shown.

The end wall structures 13 and 14 preferably are each provided in the form of transversely-extending and spaced inside and outside plates to form a casing housing, as will be best understood from Figs. 2 and 3. Inside and outside plates 17 and 18 of the end wall structure 13 are similar to the inside and outside plates 17 and 118 of the end wall structure 14, except that the latter is not equipped with a digital member or operator, such as that shown at 19 as extending through an arcuate slot 20 in the outside plate 18. Preferably, marginal edges 21, 21 of the inside plates 17, 17 are turned inwardly substantially normal thereto to form relatively short flanges which are telescopically received in wider inturned flanges 22, 22 of the outside plates 18 and 118, also formed by turning the edges thereof substantially normal to the major portions of the outside plates. After assembly of the mechanisms in the casing housings provided by the end wall structures 13 and 14, the nested flanges 21, 22 and 21, 22 are then secured together in any suitable manner, such as by spot welding, when the inside and outside plates 17, 18 and 17, 118 are formed of sheet steel, as is preferred. Although the end wall structures 13 and 14 are generally rectangular in shape, they preferably have their upper corners obliqued at about 45 as shown, chiefly to improve the appearance of the basket. The transversely-extending bottom portions 122, 122 of the outside plates 18 and 118 provide suitable flat bearing surfaces for steady support of the basket upon any supporting surface, as will be best understood from Figs. 5 and 6, such supporting surface there being diagrammatically illustrated at 23; and the ledge strips 16, 16 are disposed thereabove. The lower corners of the inside plates 17, 17 are cut away at 24-24 to permit the ledge strips 16, 16 to pass freely therebeyond to the interior of the casing housings, and to permit lateral swing or outward retraction from the area of the open bottom of the ledge strips until they are stopped by side portions 222-222 of the outside plate flanges 22, 22, as will be best understood from Fig. 6.

Each load-supporting ledge strip 16 is bridged longitudinally between and supported by a pair of depending lever arms 25, and for this purpose each strip 16 and the two supporting lever arms 25, 25 therefor may be made as integral parts of a single strip of suitable strong metal material, such as steel, bent to the U shape illustrated in Fig. 3. At least the depending arms 25, 25 associated with the end wall structure 13 form parts of a pair of opposed bell-crank lever means 26 and 126. Each bell-crank lever means 26 or 126 includes one of the depending lever arms 25 and a laterally-extending lever arm 27 or 127 with the lateral lever arms fixed to the depending lever arms, such as by welding. The bellcrank lever means 26 and 126 are suitably pivotally-supported by the end wall structure 13, such as by bridging pins 28, 28 which extend through holes at the junctures of the depending and lateral lever arms of the bell crank structures. As is best seen in Fig. 2, each pin 28 preferably is shouldered by being provided with reduced ends which are snugly seated in small holes in the inside and outside plates 17 and 18, thereby limiting the telescope of the flange 21 of the inside plate into the flange 22 of the outside plate. Thus, the pins 28, 28 pivotally support the bell-crank levers comprising the depending lever arms 25, 25 and lateral lever arms 27 and 127 in the casing housing formed by the inside and outside plates 17 and 18, as will be best understood from Fig. 2. If desired, a washer 29 may be assembled on each pin with the lever arms suitably to space the latter from the inside faces of the inside plates. Since each pair of associated lever arms 25, 25 at opposite ends are tied together by one of the ledge strips 16 they are also automatically spaced from the inside faces of the outside plates, but if desired one may employ a filler or spacing collar or sleeve on each pin 28 further to assure such spacing. This bell-crank lever mechanism thus readily can be assembled upon the pivot pins 28, 28 and housed in the casing provided by the inside and outside plates 17 and 18 by mounting on each pivot pin successively one of the washers 29, one of the bell-crank levers 25 and 27 or 25 and 127, perhaps one of the collars or sleeves 30, and then fitting the reduced ends of the pin into the aligned holes of the inside and outside plates as the former is telescoped into the latter, the assembled parts thereafter being securely fixed together by the spot welding of the flanges 21 and 22 to each other.

Since, in the preferred embodiment illustrated in the drawings, the bell-crank lever means need be (and thus is) manually manipulated at only one end of the basket or container 10, it is not necessary to provide bell-crank lever structure for the casing housing formed by the end wall structure 14. A commercial embodiment has been designed to include only depending levers 25, 25 in end structure housing 14. However, one may wish to assure a minimum tendency for the parts to bind in operation, as by substantially duplicating in both of the casing housings provided by the end wall structures 13 and 14 the bell-crank lever structure. Thus, the dependent lever arms 25, 25 which, as shown in Fig. 2, are housed in the end wall structure 14, also may be associated with lateral lever arms 27 and 127, suitably affixed thereto, such as by welding. The resulting bell-crank levers in end wall structure 14 are pivotally supported by pins similar to pivot pins 28, 28 carrying similar collars 30, 30 and washers 29, 29. It will thus be seen that the bell-crank lever means 26 essentially includes the dependent lever arm 25 and the lateral lever arm 27 housed in the end wall structure 13, the ledge strip 16 made integral wtih that dependent lever arm, and the other depending lever arm 25, also made integral with that ledge strip and housed in the end wall structure 14. Also, the bell-crank lever means 126 essentially includes two dependent lever arms 25, 25 respectively housed in the end wall structures 13 and 14, the lateral lever arm 127 housed in the end wall structure 13, and the ledge strip 16 made integral with these two dependent lever arms. However, these two bell-crank lever means 26 and 126 also may include respectively the lateral lever arms 27 and 127 which are housed in the end wall structure 14.

The bell-crank lever means 26 and 126 are made simultaneously operable by providing each of the lateral lever arms 127 with a projecting means 31 preferably in the form of a pin or finger extending laterally outward therefrom and disposed beneath a portion of the opposed lapping end of the lateral lever arm 27. Thus, if lateral lever arm 27 be depressed or swung downwardly, it will bear down upon projecting pin 31, fixed on lateral lever arm 127, simultaneously to depress or swing the latter downwardly, as will be understood from Figs. 5 and 6. Of course, such projecting pin or finger 31 may work in an elongated slot in lateral lever arm 27 so as to be disposed beneath a portion thereof, but preferably this lever arm has its lower edge suitably shaped at 32 to provide a cam surface against which the pin 31 rides as a follower to give to the pair of bell-crank means 26 and 126 similar swinging action of like extent. The lateral lever arm 27, which is housed in the end wall structure 13, carries digital member of operator 19 preferably in the form of an elongated pin extending out through arcuate slot 20 for digital engagement. Thus when pin 19 is manually depressed it will swing downwardly the lateral lever arm 27 so as simultaneously to depress the opposed overlapping lateral lever arm 127 housed in end end wall structure 13. As a result, the bell-crank lever means 26 and 126 will be swung from the positions illustrated in Fig. 5 to the positions illustrated in Fig. 6 so as to swing outwardly or retract the ledge strips 16, 16 from the positions shown in Fig. 5 to the positions shown in Fig. 6.

Preferably, the back side wall structure 12 is simply provided by a relatively wide strap 33, disposed substantially with its medial line approximately one unit depth, e. g., the thickness of a brick, above the ledge strip 16 disposed therebelow, so that when two layers of such units or bricks 34-34 are loaded upon the ledge strips 16, 16 top end edges of the lower layer and bottom end edges of the upper layer will be abutted against the back side wall strap 33 to prevent lateral shift of the bricks out of the container from the back side thereof. The front side wall structure 11 preferably is provided in the form of a relatively narrow strap 35, located a relatively short distance above the other ledge strip 16 so as to at least abut the other ends of the bricks 34-34 in the bottom layer while being low enough to facilitate side loading across this narrow strap from the front side of the basket. Preferably, the ends 36, 36 of the back strap 33 are turned inwardly, as are the ends 37, 37 of the front strap 35, and are welded to the inside plates 17, 17 of the end wall structures 13 and 14 to tie the latter together. If desired, the back strap 33 is provided with a pair of longitudinally-extending stiffening or strengthening ribs 38, 38 and the front strap 35 is provided with a similar longitudinally-extending rib 39. Contact between side faces of the bricks which are loaded adjacent the end wall structures 13 and 14 and the latter is limited, preferably by raised end panels 40, 40 suitably mounted upon and preferably welded to the inner faces of the inside plates 17, 17. The raised panels 40, 40 also permit the use of the simple means of fastening the tying straps 33 and 35 to the end wall structures 13 and 14.

Manual engagement and grasp of the basket preferably is facilitated by providing hand holes or slots 41, 41 in the outside plates 18 and 118. Ones fingers readily may be inserted through holes or slots 41, 41 into the casing housings provided by the end wall structures 13 and 14 for facilitating manual lift and transportation. If desired, U-shaped strips 42, 42, of fair width, may be secured about the top edges of the holes or slots 41, 41 to enhance the comfort to ones fingers.

The pair of bell-crank means 26 and 126 are biased by force of gravity to the load-supporting positions of the ledge strips 16, 16 illustrated in Figs. 1 to 5 incl., and such biasing preferably is supplemented by the biasing of suitable spring means, such as a helical spring 43. Spring 43 preferably is fixed at one end to the depending lever arm 25 of that portion of the bell-crank lever means 126 which is housed in the end wall structure 14 and with its other end fastened to an ear 44 dinked out of the inside plate 17 of this end wall structure and extending into the housing formed by the latter, as will be seen from Figs. 2, 3 and 4, and concealed by panel 40 thereon. Such spring biasing, of course, is also effective with respect to the other bell-crank lever means 26, since it causes the projecting pins 31, 31 to bear up against the lateral lever arms 27, 27 which are arranged in opposed and overlapping relation with respect to lateral lever arms 127, 127.

In operation of the embodiment of the basket of the present invention illustrated in the drawings, a workman or bricklayers helper will rest the basket 10 upon a suitable supporting surface or the ground adjacent a supply pile of the building units or bricks, such as in the fashion illustrated in Figs. 1 to 5 incl., and will then load therein a few such units, such as about a dozen bricks 3434, by passing the first half-dozen thereof over the front side strap 35 and resting their bottom end edges on the ledge strips 16, 16 to bridge them across the latter. In so loading a bottom layer of the bricks upon the ledge strip 16, 16 across the front strap 35, the end surfaces of the far ends of the bricks will be abutted against the back strap 33. The workman then loads on this bottom layer of bricks the remaining half-dozen bricks to form the top layer thereof with their far end surfaces also abutted against the back strap 33. He then inserts the fingers of his two hands into the slots 41, 41 in the opposite end wall structures 13 and 14 and manually transports the loaded basket to a location accessible to the bricklayer, there resting the loaded basket upon a suitable supporting surface. The transporting workman or helper then unloads the basket simply by depressing manually the digital operator-19 so as simultaneously to retract or swing outwardly the laterallymovable ledge strips 16, 16 away from each other from beneath the ends of the bottom layer of the bricks 34-34, as indicated in Fig. 6, thereby permitting the load comprising two layers of the bricks to drop through the open bottom of the basket in a neat stack onto the supporting surface. In this manner, the load-supporting ledge means provided by the ledge strips 16, 16 are swung outwardly from the area of the open bottom of the basket defined by the planes of the front and back side wall strips 35 and 33, so that the bricks disposed between the latter are free of support and are dumped by falling through. The depressive force applied to the digital operator 19 need not be maintained until the basket is lifted completely free up from the dumped stack of bricks for return in empty condition to the stockpile, as the rounded inside edges of the ledge strips 16, 16 will assure that they will slide easily up along the ends of the two layers of bricks 3434 without catching. As soon as the empty basket has been lifted free of the dumped bricks, the biased bell-crank means 26 and 126 return from the unloading positions illustrated in Fig. 6 to their initial biased positions illustrated in Fig. 5, so that the ledge strips 16, 16 are again returned to within the area of the openbottom and are readied for support and temporary retention thereon of another load. An-

other advantage is assured in that the dumped bricks are.

automatically neatly stacked when released from the basket.

As illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8, an embodiment of the basket of the present invention may be equipped on its front side with additional means to cooperate with the lower strap 35 so as to assure secure retention in the basket of not only the bottom layer but also the top layer of units of bricks 3434. This, of course, may be particularly useful should the basket structure be employed by mechanical cranes to transfer stacks of segregated units or bricks from one location to another, which, during swing and operation thereof, might tend to tilt and consequently, permit fall-out of some of the top layer bricks. Such a means might be in the form of a second longitudinally-extending strap 45 somewhat similar to fixed strap 35 and movably carried at its ends by a pair of transversely-extending levers 46, 46, with one of the latter pivotally mounted at 47 to end wall structure 14 and the other thereof being similarly pivotally mounted to end wall structure 13. Conveniently, a portion of raised panel mounted on inside plate 17 of each of the end wall structures may be cut away and modified for this purpose. As will be understood from Figs. 7 and 8, the oblique top face of each of the raised panels 140 may be longitudinally slotted at 48 with the slot providing a notch at 49, the bottom of the latter serving as a lever stop. Lever 46 is pivotally mounted in the slot 48 by a suitable pivot pin 47 having one end received in a hole in inside plate 17 and the other end received in a hole in the central land portion 50 of the raised panel 140, so as rotatably to support therebetween the lever arm in that slot with the bottom of the notch at 49 formed by such slot serving as a stop to limit downward swing of the lever arm and strap 46 carried thereby. If desired, each pivot pin 47 may be similar to one of the pivot pins 28 with mount thereof being attained at the time raised panel 140 is mounted to inside plate 17.

With an embodiment of the basket of the present invention equipped with the pivoted longitudinally-extending strap 45 of the Figs. 7 and 8 embodiment, the same simplicity in and ease of loading is attained by swinging that top strap upward and back toward the back side of the basket, with perhaps its lever arms 46, 46 resting against the back strap 33 or any other suitable stop means. The bottom layer of bricks 3434 which are loaded upon the ledge strips 16, 16, of course, are securely positioned between the back strap 33 and the lower front strap 35. Then, after loading the top layer of bricks 34-34 on the bottom layer thereof, the top front strap 45 will be swung back down and forward with its supporting lever arms 46, 46 to the positions indicated in full lines in Figs. 7 and 8, so that the top layer of bricks also are securely positioned between the back strap 33 and this front strap 45.

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, among those made apparent from the preceding description, are efficiently attained and, since certain changes may be made in the above construction without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described, and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A bracket for manually handling segregated units, such as bricks and the like, comprising, in combination,

an opembottom container means having side supports to retain laterally therein a stack of such building units, a pair of transversely-spaced lateral supporting means movably disposed adjacent opposite sides of said container means in the area of the open bottom thereof upon which edges of said units may rest for temporary retention of said stack in said container means, said lateral supporting means being movable laterally away from each other out of the area of the open bottom from beneath said stack to permit the latter to fall through out of said container means to a receiving surface, a pair of opposed and biased lever means pivotally supported on said container means each having a depending arm means on which one of said lateral supporting means is mounted for lateral swing therewith into and out from the open bottom area, each of said lever means having lateral arm means fixed with respect to its depending arm means to swing the latter laterally when the former is swung up and down with said lateral arm means of said pair of lever means extending toward and to overlapping relation of each other, one of said lateral arm means having projecting means extending to beneath a" portion of the I other so that when th e"latter is swung down it engages said projecting means and thereby swings the former down therewith to swing said lateral supporting means away from each other out of the open bottom area, the latter being returned'into the open bottom area by, the biasing of said lever means,'and digital engaging means on that lateral arm means which has a portion overlying said projecting means for digitatively depressing this lateral arms means.

2. The basket structure as defined in claim 1 characterized by said container means being elongated and having opposed longitudinally-spaced end walls con-.

stituting parts of said side supports, each of said pair of lever means comprising a bell-crank lever having a depending arm and a lateral arm pivotally mounted on the same end wall of said container means with the lateral arm of one of the bell-crank levers carrying said projecting means and the lateral arm of the other carrying said digital engaging means extending away from said end wall, each of said lever means including another depending arm pivotally mounted on the other end wall with one of said lateral supporting means bridged between and carried by the depending arms at the opposite end walls.

3. The basket structure as defined in claim 2 characterized by each of said pair of lever means as comprising two paired bell-crank levers pivotally mounted on the opposite end walls with the depending arms thereof carrying one of said lateral supporting means, the opposed bell-crank levers of said lever means at either end wall having lateral arms extending toward and to overlapping relation of each other with one carrying such projecting means disposed beneath a portion of the other.

4. The basket structure as defined in claim 3 characterized by said pair of lever means being biased by force of gravity to inward positions of said lateral supporting means within the open bottom area, and spring means supplementing the force of gravity biasing of said bell-crank lever means.

5. The basket structure as defined in claim 4 characterized by said spring means being connected between the container means structure and the lever means which carries said projecting means.

6. A basket for manually handling segregated rectangular units, such as bricks and the like, comprising,

in combination; an elongated, substantially rectangular container having an open bottom and opposed, longitudinally-spaced end wall structures, said end walls being tied together by elongated, longitudinally-extending members defining side wall structures; a pair of opposed and biased bell-crank levers pivotally supported on each of said end wall structures, each lever having a depending arm and a lateral arm with the lateral arms of the opposed levers at either end extending toward and to overlapping relation of each other; a pair of projections each mounted on one of said lateral arms at one end and disposed beneath a portion of the opposed lateral arm at that end whereby depression of the latter arm depresses the former arm, the projections being mounted on the lateral arms which are pivotally mounted on the same side of said container; a pair of transversely-spaced, longitudinally-extending units-supporting strips each bridged between and carried by the depending arms of the bellcrank levers at opposite ends of one side of said container to extend inward beneath the side wall structure at that side, said strips forming load-supporting ledges within the area of and along the sides of the open bottom of said container across which a stack of the units in said container is to be bridged, said ledge strips being swingable laterally out of the open bottom area beneath said side wall structures for unloading such stack when the depending arms are swung out by depression of said lateral arms; and a digital member mounted on one of said lateral arms which is disposed above one of said projections and extending out away from and beyond the adjacent end wall structure for digital engagement and consequential simultaneous depression of said lateral arms against biasing force to efiect outward unloading swing of said ledge stri s. 35 P 7. The basket structure as defined in claim 6 characterized by one of said side wall structures as comprising a relatively wide strap the medial line of which is disposed approximately one unit depth above the ledge strip located therebelow, the other of said side wall structures comprising a relatively narrow strap located a relatively short distance above the other ledge strip to facilitate side loading across said narrow strap.

8. The basket structure as defined in claim 6 characterized by each of said end wall structures as comprising a hollow casing provided by a pair of transversely-extending and spaced inside and outside plates, each end wall casing housing the opposed bell-crank levers at the end, said levers being pivotally-supported by pivot pins bridged across between said inside and outside plates, said digital member extending out through a slot in one of said outside plates for external digital engagement, the biasing of said bell-crank levers including a tension spring mounted in one of said housing casings and connected between structure of that casing and the depending arm of the lever therein which has the projection carrying lateral arm, said outside plates of said housing casings having hand holes therein for manual transportation of said container and its load.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,428,501 Otis et al. Oct. 7, 1947 2,589,423 Nadolsky et al Mar. 18, 1952 2,648,218 Joseph Aug. 11, 1953 

